The Nameless CT Scan

Hi, readers (all across the globe, apparently!  I'm very excited and flattered about this global audience).  

I wanted to tell you about the story of what I call the "Nameless CT Scan."  I saw this CT scan just searching stuff online and found one of a pediatric patient with medulloblastoma.  It spoke volumes in the sense that medulloblastoma is one of the worst brain cancers and it was in this little patient, I can't really stop thinking about it ever since I saw it.  

It makes me feel sad when I think about the life of the child and his/her family and the entire story behind this CT scan that unfolds day after day.  Of course, there is no name to the patient  since it's just out there on the internet, but when you come across stuff like that, don't forget the story and the person behind it.

We get bombarded with photos of pathology: dilated left ventricles and glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer spreading across the corpus callosum to the other hemisphere and are so under pressure to remember every little thing about it perfectly, but I think we don't always take the 1-3 seconds to think about this patient's life, this patient in the photo who is teaching us about their disease.

Stories like this are hard for me to write sometimes, because I'm expressing my innermost thoughts and feelings and we kind of live in a culture where both males in general and people in the medical field are expected to just not really be expressive or be in touch with their feelings and all that.  But I kind of hope that someday someone will come across entries like this and be like "that's cool, I didn't have a great time in the hospital today, but there's someone out there capable of communicating feelings!"  

Maybe a little too hopeful/idealistic.  I should probably rename my blog to something super cheesy/sappy with the way I write, but you know: a super ancient Greek guy once said "Where there is the love of medicine, there is the love for humanity."